Vespene gas
thumb|Vespene gas geyser Vespene gas (or just "gas" for short) is one of the two main resources of StarCraft, the other being minerals. Overview According to Doran Routhe, a famous United Powers League scientist, planetary systems beyond Sol could contain new resources that could benefit a resource-depleted Earth. Although the terran colonists went beyond their intended destination, Routhe's theories were proven correct, the Koprulu Sector featuring resources not found on Earth, including vespene gas.Underwood, Peter, Bill Roper, Chris Metzen and Jeffrey Vaughn. StarCraft (Manual). Irvine, Calif.: Blizzard Entertainment, 1998. Vespene gas is usually green in color, though has also been observed to be silver.Mesta, Gabriel (July 1, 2001). StarCraft: Shadow of the Xel'Naga. Simon & Schuster (Pocket Star). ISBN 0-671-04149-5. It is highly prized by terrans due to its unusually high potential energy rating and as such, is used as a fuel in high-performance engines, energy reactors and simple vehicles in a manner similar to Earth's fossil fuels. Often found in geysers, deposits of vespene can be found on many planets along the galactic rim and in asteroid fields, a number of space platforms having been built to harvest the resource. In addition, vespene can be extracted directly from a planet's crust, albeit with more difficulty.Benjamin, Paul, Shramek, Dave and Hector Sevilla. "Weapon of War." In StarCraft: Frontline: Volume 1, pp. 94–139. Tokyopop, August 1, 2008. ISBN 1427-80721-3. Purity of the vespene is highly valued.Golden, Christie (May 22, 2007). StarCraft: The Dark Templar Saga #1: Firstborn. Simon & Schuster (Pocket Star). ISBN 0-7434-7125-3. Vespene gas is also used by other races. The zerg have adapted themselves to use raw vespene as a source of nourishment to drive their greatly accelerated metabolisims, raw vespene exposure resulting in enhancement of the ultralisks physical capabilities.Underwood, Peter, Chris Metzen and Bill Roper. StarCraft: Brood War (Manual). Irvine, Calif.: Blizzard Entertainment, 1998. In contrast, the protoss use vespene as a catalyst for their psi-driven machines. Vespene formations slowly regrow over time on planets such as Antiga Prime, contributing greatly to the ability of terrans to survive in the Koprulu Sector.1998-07-03. Backwoods. Battle.net StarCraft Compendium Maps of the Month. Accessed 2008-04-17. However, while vespene geysers effectively have an unlimited amount of gas within them, after a certain point, the geyser "collapses," only trace amounts of vespene able to be found. Vespene gas is somewhat flammable if fire of a high enough temperature is applied. StarCraft I Gameplay Mining / Gathering In order to transport and store vespene gas, it must first be converted into a liquid form. Each race has a type of structure for performing this conversion: the terran refinery, the zerg extractor, and the protoss assimilator. Each geyser has a fixed amount of gas readily available (usually 5,000), and it is collected 8 units at a time and brought to the base by a worker (terran SCV, zerg drone, or protoss probe); only one collector unit can be inside the building collecting at any one time, but multiple workers can be queued up to mine from it (usually no more than 4). Once the fixed amount of gas is expended, the source is said to be depleted after which only 2 units of gas are collected at a time. Usage Generally speaking, the more advanced a unit is and the more abilities it has, the more vespene gas it requires to produce. Flying units and spellcasters require vespene to create. Basic structures do not require vespene gas to construct (except the hydralisk den, and the Cybernetics Core and the Radar Tower at StarCraft II), while advanced structures usually do. Terran units also require vespene gas to repair units that were built with vespene. Beginning Because a player with no vespene gas should be able to construct a base (and players start with 50 minerals and no gas), the workers, the base structure ("town hall"), and the vespene gas converter structure never require vespene gas to construct. Each race also has a simple ground soldier that requires only minerals to produce, the terran marine, the zerg zergling, and the protoss zealot. StarCraft II Gameplay Most maps will have two vespene geysers at each starting location and at each expansion.Karune. 2008-07-16. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 41. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-07-16. A standard gas value is 2500 vespene gas units.Leord. 2008-10-11. BlizzCon StarCraft 2 Gameplay Findings. StarCraft Wire. Accessed 2008-10-11. The optimal number of workers at each geyser is three (so six for both geysers).Cavez. 2008-06-29. WWI Gas Mechanic. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-06-29. A depleted geyser will show "Gas: 0" instead of the word "depleted". Vespene Geysers use the Adjutant's portrait.Source: Gametrailers - PAX 2008: Terran Gameplay Part 3/3. Accessed 2008-09-12. Workers can pick up 5 units of gas from a geyser (only 2 when depleted). The amount of gas picked up per trip was reduced because workers now have much better pathing AI (so this reduces the pick up rate to approximately that in StarCraft I).Mike Heiberg, David Kim. 2008-08-11. BlizzCast 4 (Community Q&A 2). Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2008-08-11. Vespene geysers constantly run out of gas (they each have a "remaining" and "available" figure). The latter is much smaller than the former. When the geyser runs out of available gas, the geyser must be "tapped" to extract additional gas, taking time.Zetaras Xal'Kurat. 2008-10-17. BlizzCon 2008: Changes to StarCraft 2. SC2 Blog. Accessed 2008-10-17. All gas collecting structures (assimilator, extractor and refinery) have a "Restore Gas" ability which, at a cost of 100 minerals, will restore 300 gas but also prevents the gas collector from collecting gas for 60 seconds.Zetaras Xal'Kurat. 2008-10-17. BlizzCon 2008: Changes to StarCraft 2. SC2 Blog. Accessed 2008-10-17. This ability is available only on depleted Geysers.Source: Gametrailers - GC 2008: Zerg Get Rushed Gameplay HD. Accessed 2008-08-26. When the "deposit" runs out, the geyser shuts down for a few seconds, and the workers wait, after which the small allowance is provided again. The vespene collector turns red during this period.Blizzcon Video Archive (Sonkie vs Yellow. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2008-10-19. This ability is "auto-cast". Blizzard Entertainment is still working on the gas mechanic.Gas doesnt sic HAVE to be more interesting, but economy strategy and economy management must be an important part of the game. We have tried at least a dozen different gas systems in the last few months as we have explored what works and doesnt work inside StarCraft game play. We will continue to work on different ideas for a new gas mechanic until we find something that meets our needs or until we discover that all possible solutions are worse than what we currently have. What was shown at WWI was very much a work-in-progress Cavez. 2008-08-14. August Discussion Topic: Gas Mechanics. StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-08-21. High Yield Gas The mechanism may change to allow for "higher-yield" vespene geysers.Karune. 2007-09-20. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 14. StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2007-09-21. References Category:Resources